Product SynopsisA detailed market research report on the United States beer industry. Researched and published by Canadean.

Introduction and LandscapeWhy was the report written?This report comprises of high level market research data on the United States beer industry, published by Canadean. The report covers total market (on- and off-premise) and includes valuable insight and analysis on beer market trends, brands, brewers, packaging, distribution channels, market valuation and pricing.

What is the current market landscape and what is changing?US beer consumption returned to growth in 2012 with volumes up by 1%. Craft beer was one of the highlights once again with sales rising by almost 15% as more small and micro breweries and brewpubs came on stream and existing craft brewers expanded sales and distribution.

What are the key drivers behind recent market changes?.The variety of beers offered by microbrewers and new launches such as Bud Light Platinum helped to drive consumption up by bringing a sense of dynamism to the category.

What makes this report unique and essential to read?The United States Beer Market Insight report is designed for clients needing a quality in-depth understanding of the dynamics and structure of the Beer market. The report provides a much more granular and detailed data set than our competitors. All data has been researched, brand upwards, by an experienced ‘on-the-ground’ industry analyst who conducts face-to-face interviews with key producers, leading companies in allied industries, distributors and retailers..

Key Features and BenefitsThis report provides readers with an excellent way of gaining a thorough understanding of the dynamics and structure of the United States Beer industry. Data includes volumes from 2008 to 2012 plus forecasts for 2013, enabling historical and current trend analysis.

Key Market IssuesOver many years the US beer market has become overly dependent upon a handful of top-selling mega brands and the micro brewery scene has provided an alternative to this and shown that consumers are interested in new, innovative beers..

Within the core beer market segments new products made a significant contribution to the turnaround in the fortunes of the beer market. For example the success of Bud Light Platinum in its first year helped to stem the decline of light beer consumption.

However most of the larger and more established beer brands experienced another year of quite significant declines as unemployment, underemployment and continuing pressures on household incomes among blue-collar workers once again curtailed discretionary spending by the nations core beer drinkers.

In spite of an explosion of new craft brands coming onto the US beer market over recent years, it still remains dominated by a relatively small number of national brands: just 10 top-selling names accounted for over 60% of all consumption in 2012. However, what is clear is that this dominance is steadily but surely being eroded

One of the most impressive features of the US beer market is the high level of import penetration with two of the top 10 brands being shipped in from overseas rather than being produced locally. Corona Extra has grown to be the largest of these with a market share of almost 4%.

Key HighlightsThe huge Light segment lost share and volume as most of its major brands struggled to gain any traction in spite of significant investment in marketing and promotional support. Light Beer is now down to under 50% of consumption.

New product success was not enough to prevent A-BInBev or MillerCoors sales and share from sliding further during the year though the two companies still hold almost two thirds of all US beer sales. Each company has been steadily building its presence in the craft beer segment in order to bolster its portfolio.

As well as the overall beer market growing in 2012, per capita consumption also grew after years of decline.

Despite volume loses the leading brewers were able to increase their profitability during the year thanks to further bouts of cost-cutting and another round of above inflation price increases from October.

Imports grew their share of consumption for the fourth straight year rising to almost 15% of sales with much of the growth driven by new introductions including a rapid expansion of sales from countries and less traditional beer exporters which have hitherto not enjoyed a significant share of US sales.